


Sacrifice

by ceirdwenfc



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 8.23, Meta, Other, Sacrifice, Season 8 finale, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:25:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceirdwenfc/pseuds/ceirdwenfc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my takeaway from the season finale of Sacrifice. I took the notes on this while watching it for the second time. The first time I was at a viewing party and it was great to get real time audience reaction to the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifice

I finally got around to watching Sacrifice a second time last week. I had seen the season finale at Andythanfiction’s place and that was a great way to watch it. Seeing it the second time let me go back over some things I missed the first time, but I need to say that I think this was an excellent finale. There was a clear cliffhanger, and more questions asked and wow, just really, wow, but I also found this finale very satisfying. It left me wanting more but not screaming and not crazy. I know that at the end when Cas is standing there watching his brothers plummet to the earth, the silence was palpable in that living room, which in itself is kind of astonishing considering that there were five of us and most of us had been drinking since dinner.

In fact, the entire show was watched in quiet with a few grunts and moans at certain parts, laughter of course, but the quiet of the show ended when the commercials came on and we just exploded with analysis and commentary and I can’t believes and did they reallys. As I said it was a great way to watch the finale. I should put my reservation in for a place to sleep, Andy for the next two season finales!

But enough about great party and super people; onto the meta….ish. I basically wrote up what stuck out in my mind and I hope it’s easier to follow for you than for me as I tried to spew it out.

Sam and Dean agreed to Crowley’s terms. Crowley had his fingertips around the candle flame. However, we really don’t know if Jody is alive or dead, do we? Also, she called Crowley hot. Now, nothing against Mark Shepherd, but I took that as a pun, which is one of the things that drew me into this show in the first place. My first episode was The French Mistake.

I love a good pun.

And yes, the King of _Hell_ is indeed hot.

**Singer Salvage**. One of the saddest, most heartbreaking moments in the show for me, and really that says a lot considering what was to come. The way Sam drags his finger in the dirt across the side of the van; Dean pausing at Bobby’s car. Was that the first time they were back there since he died? Leave it to Crowley to twist the knife.

Squirrel. Moose. I really love Crowley. I also love Dean’s demon trap handcuffs, which begs the question: does he have any to keep an angel under control?

Ahem. Sorry, I’ve let my Destiel show there; I’ll have to wait until next season for the answer to that.

The look on Crowley’s face when Dean punches him was priceless. Up until that moment, Crowley was smug, confident, arrogant even, thinking he was in charge, but then Dean punches him. Crowley was not expecting that and it showed, and Dean’s response of “I can do this all day” was where Crowley knows he’s in serious shit and his wise cracking smart ass triple innuendo self is not getting out of this so easily.

**Castiel and Metatron in the bar**. Well, this was just a beautiful display of how literal Castiel is. The bartender is fated to find love, so his love must be a woman; he checks the personal ads for the women (this was my assumption, but I have been told by other meta writers that he was actually looking at the men’s ads), and then proceeds to play matchmaker, something he should never, ever do again.

Yes, I think the question was meant to draw attention to the differences between Destiel and Megstiel: “Are you looking for a partner in crime or a nurse role-play who likes a bit of domination?” It feeds into the discomfort that it appears to the bartender that Cas is actually hitting on him and that is one of the things we are supposed to find funny. Cas is so out of his element, but he’s not bumbling. He’s trying really hard. He wants the angel trials done so that he can make things right with Dean, so things can go back to normal, despite that he’s never known normal. He just doesn’t have the nuances of humanity. He doesn’t have our intuition, our awareness of tact and appropriate conversations with strangers in a bar.

If he had some of our thought processes, our ways of questioning, of intuition, he might have wondered why it took Sam and Dean so long to complete two trials and thought twice about blindly following Metatron. Now, I don’t blame him for trusting the scribe. We’ve been give no real reason for the scribe to lie, and clearly what he’s telling Cas (and the audience) sounds a little off to us, but it’s still plausible. And of course, having written the tablets himself there is no reason for Castiel to doubt that what Metatron is telling him is false. Metatron would certainly know what he had written for G-d, wouldn’t he?

When the angels came to the bar, even seeing it for the first time, I thought Metatron was too passive in his capture. I thought it was more than just trying to keep Cas safe and on task for the ‘angel trials’. It was too easy in my opinion.

We find out that Naomi was supposed to debrief Metatron when G-d left; that she was ordered by the Archangels. This was clearly a long time ago and I’m wondering again about how long Naomi’s been around. The beginning of time? Which in and of itself, feeds into another meta on my mind about her parallels to her namesake in The Book of Ruth. It also seems as though she’s been trusted by at least the Archangels when G-d disappears. This gives her more power than I would have given her credit for.

Also, I’m still wondering why was she in Mesopotamia with Crowley? _I want to know these things_.

In the bunker, Cas pushes Kevin against the wall and tells him that there is no out, but you gotta love Cas’ anal quality: “always and forever, well, except when you cease to exist…..” It’s almost like reading the fine print on one of Crowley’s contracts. Did you see his eyes roll?

Crowley biting Sam; to make a phone call. Genius! I did not see that coming.

I would have to go back and rewatch every episode, but with their conversation at the bar, I wonder if there is an attack on the fourth wall in each one. Cas asks Dean if they should be drinking on the job, and Dean’s response is, “What show have you been watching?”

And really, this amount of alcohol for Dean is like a glass of water before bed or orange juice in the morning. My personal opinion is that if you’re fighting the devil, the more alcohol the better. This includes mugging Cupid for his bow. Or _hers_ as the case may be in this episode. Is that the first time we’ve seen a female Cupid? An in non-Supernatural Cupid lore, are Cupids female? I’d love someone to clue me in because I’ve never seen it, so it’s an interesting addition of a gender swap in an episode that’s really playing up the switch of expectations with romance and gender including Crowley vs. Abbadon. The King of Hell; the Devil – Lucifer. They’re always men, and the only time that women are depicted as being the Devil there is a sexual element to it.

Dean and Cas get a heart to heart, and then that famous Dean line along the lines of this is it, our last night, etc. I liked how their talk was somber, reflective; they truly listened to each other even though they didn’t quite understand what they weren’t saying. Cas even joined him in drinking a beer. He’s realized how important these little rituals are to Dean, and to all of us humans despite not _needing_ to drink.

I really enjoyed stylistically how they went back and forth between the scenes of Metatron and Naomi and Crowley, Sam and Abbadon. I found this very intense and thought it was played well on both sides. It kept the fast pace and the tension high and every time they broke away to show you the other action, my mind and body did this little shudder of _‘oh fuck, would you just finish the scene, what happens now, oh wait, I need to see this too’_. (Yeah, I seriously talk to myself when I’m watching this show; I only kept it internal because I was with company.)

I was literally on the edge of my seat. I hadn’t realized that I’d moved up that far until a hand on the rocker I was sitting in suddenly pushed it down and tilted it, leaving me to fall backwards into the chair.

“Talk first, stab later.” Dean puts his hand on Cas’ arm to hold him back even though he couldn’t possibly hold him back if he wanted to kill Cupid. There is so much respect between the two of them that all Dean has to do is ask Cas and he is willing to stop and listen to his friend.

I missed the first time that Abbadon smoked out; I thought she was dead, but smoking out means she could come back (and probably will). I’m not sure how that will work with changing actresses. I really enjoyed the original one; I thought she adapted to the modern world very easily and fit right in as well as being a wonderfully powerful villain.

Metatron talking about Naomi – “you and your archangels” and that there would be payback. I hadn’t noticed in the first viewing that he looks at the drill and smiles, very clearly getting something he wants even though I didn’t catch that.

Crowley though had to be one of the scariest and I found heartbreaking scenes. I felt so bad for him which is a lot to say because he’s killed so many people that I like and didn’t want to lose. I know a lot of that has to do with Mark Shepherd’s portrayal of him, and how he is such a snarky, and yet nasty piece of work. I want him to be defeated but I want him to stay and continue as a formidable enemy, and that is basically what we got in the finale. He’s not human, but is he still the big baddie that he’s been? He could be a reluctant ally as Meg became for them, but time will tell.

By the time the show ended, Crowley’s at the point of being broken. I know that I’ve read some things speculating that he was faking, but I don’t think so. The look on his face when he starts talking about love; the tone of his voice as he changes from mocking Sam, telling him he’s his Marnie, and then:

Crowley: “I just want to be loved.”

Sam: “What?”

Crowley: “What?”

I actually laughed at that part because the ‘whats’ reminded me of Doctor Who, but I digress. That was a turning point. Crowley looked confused there. That look is a real look; he doesn’t know why he said what he said, and he stops for a moment to regroup, but he doesn’t quite know what he’s regrouping for. He looks confused, like an elderly person who forgot their spouse’s name.

He calls him Sam rather than Moose. Even Sam stops what he’s doing. Sam heard the plea, the begging of Crowley’s voice. And then for the last injection, Crowley turns his neck to take the syringe of Sam’s blood; the human blood. He VOLUNTARILY takes the injection.

Back in Heaven we see Naomi is dead, although if she’s an angel, which has been confirmed by her comings and goings, I don’t see any wing scorches, so she may still have some life in her. Ironically, a drill to the back of her head and a big ass puddle of blood, but she’s been around a long time. I’m not sure that she’s gone for good, but we’ll have to wait and see.

And then Metatron basically admitting to Cas that he lied. And poor Cas. The look in his face when he realizes that he was betrayed again. Is there no one he can trust? He will soon see Dean as his only ally.

I was also surprised by Metatron’s strength. I knew he would be strong just because of his age, but when he puts his hand on Castiel’s head, he’s not pressing very hard, but Cas’ head slams down against the chair.

I also noticed (as many others did) that Cas hasn’t spoken since Metatron took his grace. I’m not sure that this will mean anything for Cas as far as not being able to speak.* I had written this and so left it, but today in the car it came to me.

I’ve seen some meta that he won’t be able to speak, but I don’t agree with that. While Castiel was living inside Jimmy’s body and he was the vessel, he was almost like working a marionette with concentration. Like when a Dad puts his daughter’s feet on top of his own and they dance. There’s a way to do that, and that is how Castiel manages the vessel.

When Metatron took his grace, he took his angelic being. He healed him and sent him to live life as a mortal human. You can see it when he stands up, which I’ll mention again later, but now that Cas is human, he’s not the puppet master anymore. He has to learn how to use all the functions of the body that belongs to him now. It’s not an angel or entity inhabiting, but it is HIS BODY. He needs to learn how to breathe, how the fingers work when running them through his hair (or someone else’s) and he needs to practice and learn how to use the vocal chords. I’m sure he’ll be fine (physically anyway) by the season premiere.

When Metatron tells Castiel to find him and tell him his story after he dies as a human, I got a very creepy vibe from that. Just the way he said it made me uncomfortable, almost the way you’d feel watching a rape scene in a movie. Maybe I’m overreacting, but that was the same feeling I’ve gotten.

On both the first viewing (with four other people) and then the second, there was absolute silence as the angels began to fall. I had chills running up my spine. It was so sad and hopeless and what happens now feelings.

The look on Castiel’s face is so human. It’s a different look, though; a different expression than we’ve seen before. It’s not Emmanual or Jimmy or any of the others we’ve seen Misha Collins play. It’s a completely new character, and I’m interested in how Misha will play this version of Cas.

It is a new Castiel and this look is just complete and utter sadness and longing for something lost. He’s still in shock. He’s had no time to process what’s happened. He’s lost his grace; all of his brothers are falling, experiencing what he just did and his home is gone. Maybe in the back of his head or in a couple of long moments, he’ll realize that he still has Dean and can go to the bunker, but right now under the light of falling angels, he’s all alone.

And Dean responding to Sam’s question really answers us all. We knew, but we didn’t want to know and then when Dean says, “Angels. They’re falling,” I felt a numbness and I’m almost positive the look on my face was the same one that Castiel wore.


End file.
